Asbestosis is a non-cancerous, but serious disease of the lungs caused by exposure to asbestos.

Asbestosis is almost always job-related and many of the victims are older individuals who were exposed to asbestos at work before the United States began to regulate its use in the mid-1970s.  This naturally-mined material was used extensively in the construction and manufacturing businesses, especially as pipe insulation, in fire-retardant materials, as floor and ceiling tiles, and in brake and clutch linings.

Asbestosis has no known cure. The treatments available are to minimize the discomfort of the symptoms. There are three main treatment options.

1. Traditional Therapies   the common medical treatments, including:

Asbestosis can be difficult to diagnose as the symptoms can take several decades before showing up.

Also due to the poor record keeping and regulations from the construction industry years ago, it�s hard for people to be able to identify and prove exposure to asbestos.

So how is it possible to correctly diagnose the condition?

Diagnosis is possible through the presence of common symptoms associated with asbestosis. These common symptoms include:

When damage and scarring caused by inhaled asbestos fibers lead to stiffness in your lung tissue so that your lungs can't contract and expand normally, you will start experience symptoms of the disorder, which may include:

Asbestosis is caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers. Unlike other forms of asbestos disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis is not cancerous. The process of getting asbestosis is not yet fully understood, but it seems that asbestos fibers in the lungs cause irritation and inflammation. The body attempts to defend itself from these foreign fibers in various complex ways, and some or all of these defense mechanisms lead to further inflammation and cell damage.